ROA?

[TFoley]

I might get some osage orange custom handles for it if the gun works good n stuff.

I stopped by Sportsman’s a Warehouse today and got a box of .457s.

Just hoping I don’t break a part in the gun, seems replacements are impossible to find now.

According to the nice lady I spoke to at Sturm, Ruger Inc a few years ago when I called up to ask why I'd been kept waiting more than twenty years for my free taller foresight, Ruger has NO parts that are not common with the Super Blackhawk series of cartridge-firing revolvers. However, here in UK there seem to be a couple of people with stashes of bits like the hands and pawls for a lot of money.

 

[Newtire]

The ROA is a Ruger Blackhawk made into a black powder pistol we can thank Bill Ruger for the that. Very well made pistol and can take a beating if cared for properly.

Hey Stew, missing the coffee! Been out shooting my flint guns. Lots of fun.

 

[crvlars]

Recently here in UK there is a company re-manufacturing this part - the ONLY part on the ROA that gets damaged by less than careful re-assembly after a clean-up. They sell for GBP£36, a far cry from the £80 I was quoted a coupe of years back from a local CAD company.

I have one.

@OP - I bought my ROA in 1986, and shoot it most weekends since - at least a hundred thousand shot since I shoot about 80 -100 at every session. Right now I have a set of Treso nipples, replacingthe orginals, but I think that they will outlast me.

There are NO brass parts on a ROA, unless you go for the after-market brass trigger guard - some like it, but as my ROA is stainless, it would look very odd. Any grips that fit the Super Redhawk will fit the ROA. Over here in the rest of the world the ROA is not compatible with the rules for shooting a BP revolver in competition - even the fixed sight version has coil springs and is therefore not HC. I doesn't stop us using it for all kinds of fun, and stoking it up can result in a lot of smoke and knockdowns, for sure.

Like 2000 of The first ROA came with brass trigger Guard from the factory. I do have 2 myself

 

[TFoley]

Like 2000 of The first ROA came with brass trigger Guard from the factory. I do have 2 myself

You DO realise that those of you with multiples of this revolver are denying the experience to somebody else? Shame on you!!

Well, I'm just jealous on behalf of all those folks who can't find one over here. The line over here in UK is long, and getting longer as those who have them are most decidedly hanging on to to them. I've been offered stupid money for mine, many times, the last one was a £800 - in my hand - from a registered dealer...that's £4000 in dog money, BTW.

 

[crvlars]

i live in Denmark and bought mine in germany. I was wrong with the numbers I have 3 pices with Dragon brass grib. and one stainless Prefere the bigger brass grib.

 

[nkbj]

The lee conical mold for the ROA work and is cheap. Balls should be at least .457, .465 is a typo?

No sir, not a typo. The chambers on my Ruger are .456" diameter.
0.457" ball isn't big enough for chambers that large and the next bigger diameter ball mold I have is an old Ideal .465".

 

[Erwan]

This is the one I bought:

Mine is largely older than this one but not so nice:

 

[hawkeye2]

TFoley,
There's no way in little green apples I'm shooting .457 ball in .456 chambers.
That said, I'd love to see people chime in on what the chambers in their Rugers actually measure.
I'm thinking about trying out a .458 wide flat nose 260 grain from LBT that has been sitting around neglected for ten years. I could size the rear 3/4's of it to .454 and make it slip into the chambers while shearing on the front.

Though I don't have a Ruger I do have the chambers on all the revolvers I'm serious about reamed to .456" and use a .457 ball. I cut a new forcing cone, factory bore, and I've never had any problems with that combo.

 

[Erwan]

TFoley,
There's no way in little green apples I'm shooting .457 ball in .456 chambers.
That said, I'd love to see people chime in on what the chambers in their Rugers actually measure.
I'm thinking about trying out a .458 wide flat nose 260 grain from LBT that has been sitting around neglected for ten years. I could size the rear 3/4's of it to .454 and make it slip into the chambers while shearing on the front.

Normally the caliber of the cylinder is .454 (my ROA) and I use the Lyman bullet 452389 just out of the mold without calibration and it works fine...

 

[nkbj]

#452389 is a good looking bullet. Does the nose hump center well for the ram?

 

[M. De Land]

Though I don't have a Ruger I do have the chambers on all the revolvers I'm serious about reamed to .456" and use a .457 ball. I cut a new forcing cone, factory bore, and I've never had any problems with that combo.

Check the bore diameter in the threaded portion where it comes through the frame with a plug gauge. Chances are it will be tighter there and will probaby shoot better if lapped level.

 

[Erwan]

#452389 is a good looking bullet. Does the nose hump center well for the ram?

The ram is hump center...

 

[nkbj]

Looks like it should work great.
These are the ones working good in a .41 caliber 1858 Remington. The nub on that wadcutter is why I asked (what I was thinking about).

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Shot the gun yesterday and .457” Hornady balls were too small. Did not cut a perfect ring of lead on each chamber and they crept forward under recoil, tying up the revolver. Not good. Went home and the Hornady balls all mike at .457-.458 so they are not the problem. The balls just popped on in with almost no resistance.

I have no way of accurately measuring cylinder mouth diameters. I seem to be having the same problem as nkbj.

Bummer. Might sell it and get a stainless ‘58 with targets, probably an Uberti. The stainless Ruger cleaned up easier than any other cap and ball I’ve had and I loved the target sights.

 

[nkbj]

Why not lap a Lee mold out until it works?
Hey by the way, if you drive one of those .457 balls through your barrel do you have a lot of flat where the rifling flattened the sides?

Those big chambers could be a big opportunity!

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Why not lap a Lee mold out until it works?
Hey by the way, if you drive one of those .457 balls through your barrel do you have a lot of flat where the rifling flattened the sides?

Those big chambers could be a big opportunity!

Don’t you use .465s? How do they do?

Sorry, but I don’t want to own the gun if it is obviously out of spec. Clearly, .457s are too small, so that would make the manual incorrect. I’m not going through the rigamarole of custom making a mould and running balls just for this one pistol not me.

 

[M. De Land]

Check the bore diameter in the threaded portion where it comes through the frame with a plug gauge. Chances are it will be tighter there and will probaby shoot better if lapped level.

After making the comment about checking the bore diameter under the thread area in my revolver I decided to check my own and was delighted to learn I had no constriction in this area in my revolver and even a bit of taper toward the muzzle. This is a 1976 Centenial blue model.
My Pietta by comparison did have a constriction in this area and was lapped.